The Nats' Ring of Honor Stinks

3 Comments:

For once you got something right. Maybe that will get you into the Blogger Ring of Honor someday.

But if you think about it, there's a way the Nats can recover from this mistake without it actually even seeming like it was a mistake. They just have to say that they established the Ring of Honor and seeded it with help from the Hall of Fame, since there really are not many fans of the Montreal Expos living in DC and not many fans of the Homestead Grays or original Senators even living anywhere any more. But now that they've done that, it is time for the fans to step in and populate the Ring of Honor with players from the modern era, defined as "since the stadium we started play in was built." They can set up a fan mechanism like the Orioles use, or something different. But the point is, they can do that and it would be incredibly simple. So simple even a caveman could do it. Ryan Zimmerman ought to tell them as much. But of course Kasten and the Lerners would then just go for a smoothie.

Believe or not there are a lot of people who saw Lou Brock play. Forget Brock ... hey what about Harmon Killebrew? Or WTF Camilio Pascual, Pedro Ramos, Eddie Yost (who I think also coached for Teddy ballgame?), Jim Lemon, Jim "Kitty" Kaat, Bob Allison and yes Whitey Herzog played CF for old DC?

When does it stop Dr. Needham? It really can't stop at Frank, Mike Epstein, Ken McMullen, Bosman, Coleman, Pena, and Knowles now can it?

Chris I read your other article and you compare the Orioles and the Nationals on that one. I would say the Orioles also have two standards: a ring of fame (which includes all their retired numbers, which are ALL Hall of Famers) and the Orioles Hall of Fame, which is located in the center field pavillion on Eutaw Street.

There is no reason the Nationals cannot do the same thing at some time and establish a Nationals Hall of Fame, which would be separate from the Ring of Honor and would include players who would not make the criteria for the Ring of Honor. The Orioles didn't start theirs for a number of years after 1954 -- I was just in Seattle and theirs only started several seasons ago and no one was inducted for over 10 years after the team's start in 1977.

So Livan Hernandez, Frank Robinson, and Chad Cordero cannot go into the Nats Hall of Fame for a couple more years!

I thought the Ring of Honor was nicely done. Honors all the old Senators, which is a good thing, and very nice touch to honor the Grays and yes, the 'Spos. Don't see the harm in doing that one bit.

And as for Frank Howard, he has a big statue in the front of the ballpark, which seems to me like plenty of honor.